Any $k$-ary relation can be expressed in terms of binary relations by means of projection maps, i.e. introduce new objects which correspond to $n$-tuples of the original objects ($n \leq k$), and introduce binary projection relations (i.e. $P(x,y)$ iff x is the first $n-1$ coordinates of $y$). Then $k$-ary relations are equivalent to a unary relation on $k$-tuples, and the $k$-tuples are all expressible in terms of the original objects via the binary projections maps. 

In brief, 2-ary relations are sufficiently expressive to handle all arities. (And similarly 2-ary functions can express all functions)